The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-01-22
vat you call landslip--only 70 last

'ne track o. 1t now" muttered Selbv.
with a rueful glance at the broad swatb'
s.!a'snt and even as a railway-cuttine,
driven through the very heart of the
WOOD oy the charge Of the DESTROYER. all
around the track of which the strono
plne-stems had been torn up by the
roots, snapped in two. or twisted round
IKE bulrushes. sits as bad as the fol.
low IN the sea-fight. who put his head
INTO the hole made by the first cannon-
ball, judging hat it was hardly posi-.
pie Tor another shot to hit in exactly
the same place" However, we cleared
the wood without accident, and began
a climb which, according to Jack Sci.
ny, was a good imitation of the tread.
mill, "always going upstairs and new
er getting to the top" Ledge after
ledge of rock did we surmount, scram.
bling up slippery crags, clawing our
way round ticklish corners, creeping
along broken paths, barely a foot in
breadth; but still, although the dark
plne-tops seemed already far below us,
the vast, gray precipice overhead look.
ed just as high and impracticable as
ever.
"We,re as bad as Baron Munchau-
SEM growled Jack, "whcn he length
ehed his rope by cutting a piece off the
top and splicing it on to the bottom.
! Hollo!'
Jacks 'hollo' was not unnatural, be-
ing caused by the sudden fall of a biz
stone close to his head, followed by an
other and another. My first idea was
that We were about to have a personal
experience of one of those landslips
which our guide had just been describ-
ing so %picturesquely. But Jean Louis
only grinned, and pointed upward to a
couple of chamois which were fitting
from rock to rock almost as lightly as
the birds among them, and making up,
with their bright eyes, slender limbs
and short, curved horns, a very at
tractive picture.
''lf I only had a rifle" muttered
Jack, with kindling eyes.
'No, good monsieur" muttered Jean
Louis, decisively; "chamois here too
cunning for dat. My cousin Victor de
best hunter all zis valley. and he chase
one chamois all day over desc rocks,
nevare catch him. Chamois Just wait
till he come close, and den, as he 90 to
shoot, laugh in him face and run way
again, Hal"
The exclamation. and the look of dis
may that overspread our pilots bold
brown face as he uttered it, were sufii-
GENTLY explained by asinglc glance be-
low. Stream and meadow, rock and
wood, had vanished as if they had never
been; and all beneath us was one sullen
mass of gray, impenetrable fog, which
was creeping up toward us on every
side, slowly and relentlcssly as the ris-
ing of the %devouring sea,
Quick, quick!' shouted Marlotaz,
springing up the rocks. perhaps it
may not rise so high as dis. Make
ha5tol''
And now began such a race as l had
never tried before. Away we went,
many a break-neck place which at
any other time we might have hesitated
to attempt-along slippery lodges, past
angles, up narrow clefts
only M could pass at a time,
and where hand. heel and knee all had
to do their utmost to keep us from a
of several hundred feet down on
to the jagged rocks below. But, make
what haste we might, the pursuing fog
gained upon us slowly but surely.
One by one, the great cliffs below van
shed into the rising dimness; and
a few moments later ii was around and
above us or every side, and the whole
world was blotted out, save for the few
Yards of crumbling rock upon which we
stood. Plainly enough, to scale such a
orecipice in such a fog would be moth
ng short of certain death. All hat we
,ould do was to burrow into the cleft
If a huge projecting crag, and make
ourselves snug there till the fog should
,e kind enough to go off again.
"Well," cried Jack, "as we've moth
else to amuse ourselves with, sup
,ose we have some lunch. It'll make
he provision bags lighter to carry.
4nyhow."
And a very jolly picnic we had in
hat wild lunch-room, thousands of feet
p in the air, in the loneliness of the
ilent mountains, with the eternal snow
II around us. and the cold gray mist
hutting us in like a shroud. But even
n the height of our merriment, an I'M
'leasant reminder of our perilous sur
oundings would occasionally break in.
"a lack stretched his bupe limbs